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February: Meet the Animals - A Day in the Life of Our Farm’s Herd and Flock

written by

Anonymous

posted on

February 28, 2025

You might be surprised to learn that roosters don’t only crow in the mornings. They, in fact, can and do crow in the afternoon, and the evenings before bed. You might be surprised to learn that donkeys are great protectors.  You might be surprised to learn that livestock guardian dogs love the cold and don’t really care about their shelters. You might be surprised to learn that cow is really a name for females and that the proper term we should use to reference a large gender-mixed group, should be cattle.  These fun facts, and more, are all a day’s work with our herds and flocks. So this month, we see through their eyes, a day in the life on Third Way Farm…

A Day in the Life of a Third Way Farm Chicken

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Crowing begins to signal the day. You wait anxiously as the humans outside your chicken-tractor, move fencing, refill waters, and throw down lots of yummy feed for you. When all that is done, the doors open wide, and it’s chicken-magedon as everyone flies outside to feed.  

While you eat, you notice all the humans collecting all your lovely and nutritious eggs (gold nuggets these days!), and occasionally picking your friends up to pet them.  It’s easy to feel safe around these humans because they always love us! As for when they leave, we still feel safe knowing that our furry guardian Dutch is watching over us. Most of the time she barks at the wind, but sometimes, she scares away sneaky foxes and creepy hawks.  

Safe and sound, we get to spend the day frolicking in the fields eating through cow poop, looking for bugs, and digging holes to dust bathe in. Finally, as the sun goes down (and more crowing commences), we know it’s time to sleep for the night, so we hop back into our tractors to snooze the night away.  It’s a clucking hard life!

A Day in the Life of the Third Way Farm Cattle

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Snoozing in the field, we’re woken by the crowing of the chickens far behind us. Slowly we amble into gear and decide to munch on some of yesterday’s leftover pasture.  Hooray, humans are coming! They are always a good sign, because this means we get to move into new, fresh pasture! Opening the fence so we can move over, the humans also decide to move our shelter over so we can have cover from the sun and from rain. Not that we mind very much, even when it’s pouring, we like to just stand outside and chew our cud.

Now that all my friends have moved to a new place, we get to spend the day eating to our heart’s content. Humans sometimes even come in the afternoon with some treats like hay, harvested greens, or old cabbages! Each day brings something new and exciting as we move into new pasture every single day. Now, as the evening comes in, we bed down with each other to sleep the night away in peace. There are few predators for animals as big as us! We’ll wake tomorrow and do it all over again. A pretty MOOOving lifestyle. 

A Day in the Life of the Third Way Farm Pigs

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Hiding in the woods, the crowing of the roosters is muffled. But the sound of the ATV wakes us up as it comes down the road ready to give us some yummy food. All of us, usually 15-20, squeal with joy as the humans bring us food including leftover/spent grain from Hopkins (reduce and reuse!).  As the animal garbage disposal, we often get special treats as well, like broken eggs and unsightly veggies.  No problem for us!

After we chow down, we spend the day rooting around the forest, searching for acorns, brambles, and yummy bugs to eat. We get new areas to explore once every few weeks since our pens are HUGE. If we get bored, we dump our water and roll in the mud, it feels so good, especially when it’s hot out. But no matter what happens, we’re always looking cute with our floppy ears and fun personalities. It’s an absolutely SWINE life!

A Day in the Life of Rowdy

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I can definitely hear those stooopid chickens, as my radar-like ears can pickup sounds from tens of miles away.  No matter where I am, I can hear them. If only I was closer to chase them around so they’d shut up. Anyway, my job is here, with the sheep. Getting up, I make my own stamp on the day by heeing and hawing so everyone knows where I am.  I make my morning rounds around the pen to check for nasty predators. 

Oh look, some humans are coming over. I hee and haw in happiness because they bring food, but more than that, they bring pets.  They pet my neck and back, but my favorite is when they pet my face! Sure, I can scratch it against a tree or the fence, but the human’s fingers are just waaaay better.  Plus the humans smell funny so that’s always fun.  

After they leave, I like to play by chasing the few sheep that are left until someone yells at me. I thought it was funny too! But back to business. I will kick anything that comes towards my sheep. I’ve protected them from foxes and once, even from a coyote. Too bad it didn’t get closer, because I would have knocked him into yesterday!  

Time to greet neighbor John and neighbor dog Jack as they walk by, I think some heeing and hawing should do as that might get him to come give me pets. I love all humans and can tolerate almost any thing from them. Small ones to big ones, and sometimes the crazy ones who even try to ride me. It’s all in a donkey’s work day. Hee haw baby!

A Day in the Life of Stella

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Wake up. Run! Car. Run. Car. Car. I’m fast.  Run. Bark. Sleep. Car. Car. Run. Dog. Home. Sleep.

A Day in the Life of Scuttles

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I wake up. It’s approximately 9am. Time to mosey on over to the sunny patch in the driveway. I think I’ll nap. 

Now it’s noon. Time to go bother the humans while they sit around and talk for a while. I’m sure I can convince one of those feeble minded creatures to pet the right spot.  I suppose, it’s time for nap two. The work needs to get done. 

Now it’s 3pm and time for me to make my way to the barnstore. Humans come in and out all afternoon. Easy to manipulate them into giving me pets. I am so beautiful, it’s hard not to pet me. I am their master! Mwahahaha. Anway, looking cute, I like step in front of people, stand in front of the cash box, and generally bother them until they give me food. Jokes on them because I hunt at night anyway. Stupid humans giving me free food. 

Well, it’s 6pm. Time for a last nap before hunting and sleeping. Until tomorrow…

A Day in the Life of a TWF Human

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Arriving to the feeding station, it’s hard to hear the rooster crowing. But, we’ll hear it soon enough. We pack up all the feed and water that the animals will need. Together, we drive over the tractor and the truck to do chores. 

At the chickens we move pens, move coops, feed and water all of the birds. Then collect eggs. At the cattle, we move them and their shelters into fresh pasture. At the pigs, we give food and water.  As simple as it is, these chores become almost ritualistic in their nature. Day in and day out, in pleasant weather, in bitter weather, and in down right disastrous weather, we feed and water and check these, our animals. These precious partners in farming and life. We see injuries, hurts, and sometimes even deaths together. We witness births, and insane cuteness. We watch as animals grow from small cuties, to mature animals, worthy of respect and care all the way through. As animal stewards, we care for them in the way we would like to be cared for. We drop everything when an animal is hurt. We pray and say goodbye when animals leave the farm.  We give thanks for their lives and work to co-create such a beautiful life.  

All in all, not a bad life to live, we'd say.

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    Havre de Grace MD 21078
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